She had to work on her 50th birthday, but Aug. 15 was still a special day for Debra Messing. “I was filming Will & Grace on my birthday, and it was great to be working!” the Emmy-winning actress exclusively told Closer Weekly (in the magazine’s latest issue, on newsstands now!) at Project Angel Food’s recent Angel Awards in LA.

Eric McCormack, her co-star, “led the entire audience in singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me before we started filming. So that was pretty special,” she gushed. But Debra’s greatest gift, she revealed, actually arrived later that day.

“Then my son came into town to help me celebrate,” she said of Roman, 14, before adding, “Turning 50 feels kind of wonderful — I feel like I’m very at peace at where I am in my life and I’m very in touch with what I’m grateful for. I know who I am, and I feel really secure about saying no. I think it’s a really good place to be!”

This summer, Debra has been having a lot of fun shooting the reboot for Will & Grace which recently got renewed for a second season. “It felt really good being back. The first time we walked out and the audience went insane and we heard our music… every one of us started to cry,” she told ABC News Radio of shooting the first episode. “We just hope that we can make everybody laugh as hard as we did before, or more.”

Debra added that the reboot has been so successful because the program is very relatable and funny. “I think people love the show, because they know they’re going to laugh out loud at some point in this 22-minute story,” she has said. “That’s the kind of comedy that lives within the universe of Will & Grace. It’s big, it’s broad, it’s silly, and it’s vaudevillian at times, but I don’t think you can overestimate the healing power of laughter.”

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